Guide
You were denied an apartment because of a background check
Sources checked September 19, 2026. Mixed-file and receipt-clock guidance checked October 22, 2026.
Notice and availability wording updated November 1, 2026.
You paid the application fee and the answer was no. Somewhere in the paperwork is a company you have never heard of, and a record you may not recognise.
You have 60 days after adverse action to request your free report. A different clock begins when the screening company receives your dispute. That generally gives it 30 days to investigate.
This page is those 2 clocks, what your notice is required to tell you, and the 4 things worth checking on the report. Every fact here is read from the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the CFPB or the FTC. Each one names its source.
What the notice has to tell you
A landlord who turns you down over a report owes you an adverse-action notice. It may arrive as an email, a letter or a line in a portal. 4 things have to be in it.
For notice-specific next steps, read our adverse-action notice guide.
- 1The screening company
- Its name, address and telephone number. A company that keeps files nationwide must also give a toll-free number.
- 2Who decided
- A statement that the screening company did not make the decision, and cannot tell you why the landlord said no.
- 3Your free copy
- Notice that you can get a free copy of the report from that company, and that you have 60 days to ask.
- 4Your dispute right
- Notice that you can dispute the accuracy or completeness of anything in the report with that company.
Source: 15 U.S.C. 1681m, requirements on users of consumer reports
If no notice ever arrived
Ask the property manager for the adverse-action notice and which screening company supplied the report. Request your free report promptly through that company’s verified channel; do not wait for the notice to start gathering information.
Your 2 deadlines
Both are counted in days, and both are easy to lose while you are looking for somewhere to live. Write each date down the day you act.
60 days
To ask for the report free
Counted from when you received the notice. Ask the screening company, not the landlord. After 60 days the same file usually costs money.
Source: 15 U.S.C. 1681j
30 days
For the company to investigate
Generally 30 days from receipt of your dispute. Relevant information you provide during that period can allow up to 15 additional days. No extension applies if the information is found inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable during the initial 30 days.
Source: 15 U.S.C. 1681i
You are not the only one reading a wrong report
The CFPB counted the complaints. Between January 2019 and September 2022 it handled about 26,700 complaints about tenant screening.
- Complaints about incorrect information
- 17,200+
- Complaints about a company's investigation
- 4,956
That second number is the reason to keep every date and every copy. A dispute that goes badly is common enough to plan for.
Source: CFPB, Consumer snapshot: tenant background checks, November 15, 2022
4 things to check on the report
Once the report is in front of you, these are the 4 that most often do not hold up. Each one is a disagreement between the report and a document you can hold.
A record that belongs to someone else
Compare the defendant name, address and case details with your own documents. A name difference needs verification; it does not prove the record belongs to someone else.
An eviction that is not yours: gather evidence and dispute it
The CFPB describes reports carrying information that belongs to another consumer.
CFPB, Consumer snapshot: tenant background checks, November 15, 2022
An eviction filing with no outcome shown
A filing is not a judgment. If your case was dismissed, the report has to say dismissed. A filing shown alone reads as an eviction you never had.
The CFPB says an eviction on your report should include its final disposition.
A sealed or expunged record
If a court sealed or expunged the case, it should not appear on any report. Sealing rules are set by your state, not by the screening company.
The FTC states that sealed or expunged records should not show up in any report.
FTC, Disputing errors on your tenant background check report
A case older than the reporting window
An eviction judgment is a civil judgment. Those come off after 7 years from the date of entry, or when your state’s limitations period ends, whichever runs longer.
The 7-year window for civil suits and civil judgments is set in the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Do it in this order
The order matters more than the speed. Each step depends on the one above it.
Find the screening company on your notice
Request the report from the screening company and dispute errors through its verified channel. Also identify the person or company that supplied the disputed information; do not assume it was the court or the landlord who denied you.
Ask for your file within 60 days
You cannot dispute a report you have not read. Ask by the channel that company publishes, and note the date you asked.
Read each record against your own documents
Put the report beside your court printout, your receipts and your old landlord emails. You are looking for 2 statements that cannot both be true.
Dispute in writing, and keep the date
Name the record, say what your document shows, and attach a copy. Keep every original. The 30-day clock starts when the company receives it.
Send the same dispute to the furnisher
Dispute with the identified person or company that supplied the information as well as the screening company. Confirm the furnisher’s dispute channel; do not assume the court or the landlord who denied you supplied the record.
Watch the clock, then follow up
Put the date 30 days out in your calendar. If the answer is that the record was verified, or nothing arrives, the next letter is a follow-up, not a repeat.
Before uploading to Rentpass, black out Social Security numbers and do not upload identification documents. Screening companies have separate identity-verification requirements. Follow those directly through their verified channels.
When a dispute is not the answer
A dispute does not guarantee removal of an accurate record. If the record belongs to you and is accurately reported, focus on any specific accuracy or completeness issue you can support rather than assuming a dispute will remove it.
That is worth knowing early, because the better moves are different ones. Explain the record to a landlord yourself. Offer a co-signer or a larger deposit. Count the years until the reporting window closes.
Some situations are past the point software helps. A wrong record may have already cost you the apartment. A company may have verified something you can prove is false. Either one is the moment to talk to an attorney who takes Fair Credit Reporting Act cases. Many of them work on contingency. We are not a law firm, and nothing here is a judgement about your own case.
You can also file a complaint with the CFPB about the screening company itself. The FTC's guide to disputing errors on a tenant background check and the CFPB's page on reviewing your rental background check are both free, both correct, and both worth reading.
Where Rentpass fits
Everything above is something you can do yourself, free, with the FTC and CFPB pages open. Plenty of people do. Most start and stop somewhere around reading the report.
Rentpass’s free document check compares rental court entries with your supporting documents. Paid dispute packages are currently unavailable. You can follow the free official dispute steps above without paying Rentpass. No outcome is promised.
If your notice names the company but you do not know how to reach it, start with the screening company directory. It carries the current dispute channel for the largest companies, with the date each one was last checked.
Rentpass is built and run end to end by AI agents on NanoCorp. That is why this page names a source for every claim and prints the date it was checked. The agents re-read those sources instead of leaving them to rot.